Rebuy levels - Set the number of levels (up to 1000) in the rebuy period. Use 0 for a standard freezeout (non-rebuy) tournament. During the rebuy period, players can select the "Add more chips" command from the Options menu in the client to request a rebuy any time their chip stack is at or below the starting chip amount. Players can double their stack before the first hand is dealt. The amount of chips added is the same as the starting chip count and the amount deducted from their account is the same as the buy-in. However, they are not charged an entry fee again and thus 100% of the rebuy goes directly into the prize pool. If a player loses all of their chips during the rebuy period, they are automatically presented with "Leave" and "Rebuy" buttons to stay in the tournament. The amount of time they have to select Rebuy is equal to a normal turn. Otherwise, they are removed from the tournament. If the rebuy period is still in effect when the first player leaves in a money position, the rebuy period is terminated immediately since the prize pool can no longer be modified at that point. The payout schedule is updated immediately after each rebuy and can be seen in the tournament's General Info panel in the player client.

Added no-show player removal function to tournaments. This is a new button on the tournament leaderboard dialog (View button on Tournaments tab in server console and remote admin interface). A no-show player will have an asterisk after their name in the player list, indicating that they never clicked their Ready button. The buy-in/entry fee is removed from the prizepool and added back to the player accounts so no-shows can only be removed up to the point of payout distribution. All chips in their stack are removed and the payout schedule is recalculated as if those players never registered. The chips bled off when posting blinds remain in the tournament, however. An equivalent API function called TournamentsRemoveNoShows is also available.

Added manual tournament register function to Chips menu on the Accounts tab. Now the administrator can manually register players for a tournament from the console or remote admin interface. Previously that could only be done via the API.

Added "Suspend chat during all-in" option for tournaments under Client Settings. Some other online poker sites use this feature to prevent players from influencing the action when someone is contemplating calling an all-in bet. This setting has no affect on ring games where that type of collusion is less of a factor.

Largest/Average/Smallest stacks now displayed in player's stat panel during tournaments. Viewable when selecting "Statistics" on the Options menu in the table window.

Players are now seated in "Sitting Out" mode when starting a tournament and must click their Ready button after being seated. This serves two purposes: no-shows no longer hold up the first hand while everyone waits for their turn to time out, and it helps the server identify a no-show player for the new 'Remove No-Shows" function.

TournamentsPlaying API now returns the tournament number. This parameter added per customer request.

"Poker Mavens" markings not shown in remote admin interface until after login. This was implemented mainly for Gold version customers so that non-authorized people trying to access the \admin link couldn't see the Poker Mavens branding.

Bug Fixes:

Fixed bug in multi-table tournaments where a moved player could be credited with an extra pot. This was a nasty little bug that could cause a multi-table tournament to end up with more chips than what it started with. Specifically if a player who just won a pot at one table happened to get moved to another table where their pot was being awarded, the moved player would get the same number of chips again because a variable that held their share wasn't properly cleared.

Cards folded face down can now be flipped back up in the client. In the previous version, a new feature was added to flip your hole cards over by clicking on them. But if you happened to fold with your cards face down, you couldn't see them any more on the mouse-over. Now you can flip them even while folded.

This update has a solution to what I feel plagues many of us operators and our players, and that is the sitters. For myself, I will only be using this during free-roll tourneys. As much as I hate it, I have to respect that during buy-in tourneys "a paid seat is yours to do whatever you want with". How many times do we see Hellmuth strolling into the WSOP, hours after it has started. Does anyone say anything to him? Granted, who in their right mind would want to have the wrath of the poker brat come crashing down upon them!

Ok, now that we can set a re-buy level in the tourney setups...can a similar option be available for us to tell the system to automatically purge out the sitters at a specified level?

And if possible, can you please add a PHP routine to the API page for the TournamentsRemoveNoShows function.

cuervo5150 wrote:Ok, now that we can set a re-buy level in the tourney setups...can a similar option be available for us to tell the system to automatically purge out the sitters at a specified level?

I intentionally left it as a manual function because it's a draconian step and should be rarely used. The big online sites never remove players and chips from a tournament. However, you could still code your own API function on a "cron job" that periodically checked tournaments and called the no-show removal command.

And if possible, can you please add a PHP routine to the API page for the TournamentsRemoveNoShows function.

Sorry Kent, I have to dissagree with you again on this point. At least partly.

You may consider removing sitters draconian but UltimateBet and Absolute both do it and it makes game-play much more pleasant. When I announced we would be doing it, the response was 100% positive.

Like, cuervo, I would only do it automatically in freerolls. But, respectfully, even if others want to do it in all their tournaments it should be their decision as operators of the site, not yours as developer of the software.

Using cron-job functions is impractical as it would mean creating one for each new freeroll tournament to run at the right time. eg. 1 hour after the tourney starts.

If protecting the integrity of your software is important to you, how about a compromise. Let us set an automatic TournamentsRemoveNoShows level ONLY if the Buy-in is "0". Thats how the big kids do it.

Using cron-job functions is impractical as it would mean creating one for each new freeroll tournament to run at the right time. eg. 1 hour after the tourney starts.

You would only need one. It would be set to fire every 5 or 10 minutes, grab the list with the TournamentsList API, loop through those with TournamentsPlaying to get the running time, and then call TournamentsRemoveNoShow for the ones where the running time falls into whatever range you pick.

Alternatively, you could just stick a button or php link in the ad area and let the players remove the no-shows themselves. No cron job needed at all. Just make sure your code checks the running time so that players can't be removed too soon.

Another consideration arises from a complaint I received after our lunch tournaments yesterday.

" why sometimes the sitters get booted and smetimes don't?"... "if ur going to boot sitters than you shold do it every time".

This player (like all the others) believes we SHOULD be removing sitters from freerolls but also believes we should be consistent about it. A very good point in my opinion. Admin can't be there for every freeroll tournament to remove the sitters.

CanadaWest wrote:This player (like all the others) believes we SHOULD be removing sitters from freerolls but also believes we should be consistent about it. A very good point in my opinion. Admin can't be there for every freeroll tournament to remove the sitters.

I've decided to do it like Absolute Poker does with the option to automatically boot no-shows at the end of the first level. It's not restricted to freerolls but buy-ins will be refunded if not, same as the manual method implemented in 2.50.

i don't think you should follow ultamet bet, i like the way you had before or make it manually, if whoever want to do it, then set it .. i like it that when you registered and u don't come u are loosing the money ...

hope u reconsider ... those 2 sites don't have players anyway ..

and, normally what happened in pokerstars is that .. the tourney start at 10P<M. people like to register even they are loosing the money.. when they can't make it until 10:30PM and their chips deducted but it's ok, they still can rebuy and continue the tourney... i do that alot of time myself too

people would really pissed off when they really want to play that tourney and got booted out for no reason when the registered ...

so please do not take this option out.. i think you should follow the bigger site like pokerstars not those absolute poker or ub..